Discuss end-game content in this section - partner up and find team members for battles such as the Binding Coil of Bahamut, the Crystal tower, as well as the relic quest line, hard mode primals and other high level dungeons. Find help guides and ask questions here.

Party Setup2 tanks, 2 healers, 4 dps ... having a SCH and SMN can make some things easier.

Recommended GearYou will be required to be at least average item level 52.

General NotesThis fight, like Ifrit, is also about coordination, but especially in the 2nd phase, it's mainly about positioning. This fight has just 2 phases but the 2nd phase is handled in tight, moving quarters.

Phase 1Here the off tank is just added dps. In general the focus is on the main tank, but Garuda will randomly throw an attack at others, which will also damage anybody near the target. Otherwise the 2 mechanics to watch for are Garuda disappearing and reappearing somewhere, in which everybody must hide behind a stack of rocks, opposite to wherever Garuda is. The other thing is after the previous, a bunch of adds spawn by garuda, and run off to attack the rock stacks. Here, a SMN can bind all the adds, and as long as nobody delivers an aoe attack or attacks an add, they will never move and just explode in place. If the adds take off, destroy them before they can destroy any of the rock stacks.

Garuda's pattern of disappearing and doing a major attack are as follows. If you have strong dps some of this may be skipped.1) she appears to the north (hide on south side of rock stacks)2) she appears in the center (hide opposite to her behind a rock stack)3) she appears to the east (hide on west side of rock stacks)4) she appears in the center, but won't attack. adds will spawn all around the perimeter, so even with a SMN present, you should kill these.

When down to 50% health, she goes to the center and does an area-wide attack which does damage based on how many rocks remain in the 4 stacks. Ideally there will be 6 or more. Everybody should get together on the west side, and if a SCH is present, protect everybody with that barrier. On to the position/heal/dps check...

Phase 2It's a whole different fight now, where positioning is very key while fighting in tight quarters. If somebody knows of some good images for this let me know and I'll add them, otherwise I'll eventually make my own. But, I'll take my best stab at this in words.

Start by having everybody gather to the west side, ranged/healers go directly W but melees and tanks go between WNW and NW on the circle with garuda. 3 tornadoes will appear trapping everybody in this small space. After a while of fighting like this, Garuda disappears, then reappears with 2 adds. The one with the green line will heal Garuda, so all dps focus on this add. The off tank will draw the add with the red line. Ideally the off tank will hold the "red add" against the back tornado, kinda close to Garuda. The dps deal with the green add, and healers have their work cut out for them keeping everybody alive. The SCH barrier will be very helpful here. Kill the red add next, then back to Garuda. If you don't kill the 2 adds quickly enough, it will lead to a party wipe.

After a little bit of fighting, the tornadoes will start to shift in a matter that forces the party to move in a small space, clockwise, from the west side of the arena to the east side. Ideally the tank keeps Garuda on the outside edge while moving, while players at range still keep their distance while moving as well. In the midst of this, a bunch of tears spawn and come annoy everybody. Only kill the siren tear. The rest just explode for small damage after a while.

When the tornadoes all disappear, it's time to shift into the center. Now avoid the outside purple area as you will get killed. The tank keeps garuda at one edge while ranged get on the other. After a little fighting, Garuda disappears and reappears with her 2 adds. Again dps kill the green one, and off tank keeps the red one away from the green one and garuda. Basically form a triangle with Garuda and the 2 adds.

After this add phase, a repeating pattern happens until a wipe or Garuda dies. At any add phase that follows, a BLM/SMN can utilize level 3 LB to speed up that add phase, or just save it for a melee to defeat garuda when the time is right.

Move to the south when the purple area disappears. Once the tornadoes close in to the small area to confine you, they will push you clockwise until you get to the west side. The movement stops briefly and then the red/green adds come. Deal with this the same was as the very first pair of adds. After these adds, the tornadoes force you to move to the north side of the area, and a bunch of tears will spawn. Again only kill the siren tear. When the tornadoes disappear, go back to the center and get ready for another add phase. Rinse and repeat this paragraph until the fight ends.